Sports and Short-Form Keys to Accelerating Europe’s FAST Growth, Says Wurl
Sports are an “accelerator” for ad-supported streaming in Europe with short-form sports content emerging as a key driver of engagement, says Keith Bedford, GM EMEA at CTV data company Wurl. “As studios and sports broadcasters struggle to tie in major upfront deals and connect with younger audiences, new models for revenue and content discovery will be required,” he says. “Short-form video could be one way we start to see sports content companies garner interest and boost engagement for their long-form and TVOD (transactional video on demand) businesses.”
Wurl enables content companies to distribute streaming video content to more than 300 million TVs and reach 30 million users globally each month. Its clients include A+E Networks, AMC Networks, Bloomberg, and BBC Studios. It also offers an ad product called AdPool, which pairs streaming inventory with differentiated demand for both channels and streaming partners. The company was bought for $430 million by AppLovin in 2022.
Entering the RugbyPass TV and FIFA+ scrum
Wurl works with over 25 sports brands, notably World Rugby and FIFA with whom it partners to launch their respective OTT services RugbyPass TV and FIFA+ to CTV platforms in different territories. Both are predominantly archive channels with increasing volumes of live content.
According to Bedford, RugbyPass TV, which launched in 2023, is gearing up to launch on Amazon Prime and other major streamers. “They are out to grow the market. America is a big market for World Rugby where rugby is a growing sport,” he says.
RugbyPass TV streams World Cup matches to fans in territories where broadcast deals are not in place as well as fixtures from tournaments such as the Women’s World Cup 2025 hosted in England this August, the U20’s championship and women’s international competition, WXV.
In addition, RugbyPass TV has over 1,000 hours of archive including historic matches plus fresh behind-the-scenes footage, documentary and interview content produced by World Rugby Studios.
Similarly, FIFA trying to build a global channel with FIFA+ which launched in 2022 on platforms including Samsung TV Plus, LG Channels, VIDAA, Rakuten and Roku, localized in 6 different languages.
“Where some rights for certain territories were not sold for the 2024 Women’s World Cup they put the games on FAST and the numbers were huge,” Bedford reports.
Short-form FAST
For younger viewers, in particular, the rise of short-form and social video is a key trend. Platforms like TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram Reels are stealing attention from long-form TV content with mobile-first, bite-sized content. Some 15% of YouTube Shorts content is now viewed on CTV.
“Short-form on FAST is early days but brands are looking to tap into that new market,” Bedford says. “It's certainly something we're going to see a shift to in FAST.”
The starting point is putting content onto social media outlets and YouTube to entice fans to view the long form on FAST channels. “I see short form as a driver to the long-form content. There are a number of projects we are looking at in this area. When it comes to short form on FAST, the journey is only starting.
“There's any real proposition there yet. Obviously, it's got to have to be built into the user interfaces. The fan is going to have to find shorts very quickly. There's a lot of collaboration needed with companies producing short form to drive consumers to FAST channels. It all has to link up. It’s quite complex to show a short and link to a channel but these are projects we are looking at. It’s a really interesting area.”
Wurl is talking to English Premier League football clubs about how they can better reach fans and launch DTC services, whether short form or long form. “There's definitely a lot of interest there. Everybody's got to look at a short form to long form proposition.”
Europe catching up FAST
Bedford’s focus is on EMEA where 86% of consumers use CTV, with the highest viewership in Spain, followed by the UK. CTV ad investments are rising, with UK spending projected to reach £2.94 billion ($3.8bn) by 2028, according to IAB UK.
Europe is a little behind the curve of the U.S in rollout of FAST predominantly because Europe is a more fragmented market in terms of rights and language distribution and also because of Europe’s deeper and continuing history of free to air TV. Nonetheless top markets like UK, Germany, Spain, Italy, and France are leading the way. Over the past year, we saw major platforms and broadcasters launch new FAST initiatives, from Titan OS and Virgin Media TV to UK broadcasters [BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and Channel 5] with the launch of Freely. Germany saw a 32% increase in CTV channel volume in 2024, growing from a low base.
“German broadcasters ZDF, WDR, and ARD are all looking at FAST and launching channels. Certainly, Europe’s tier one broadcasters are taking FAST very seriously and launching streaming content. It’s just a matter of time before streaming will reach the heights of where we are in the U.S.”
In-stream ad formats
A partnership signed in April with Transmit could propel this change. It is aimed at closing the loop between interactivity and CTV by offering access to in-stream ad formats, such as Picture-in-Picture (PIP), Overlay, and L-bar. “For example, during a live sports broadcast, viewers might see an ad pop up within the content itself during a break in action, rather than having the entire broadcast cut away for a traditional commercial break.”
Bedford says such non-intrusive ad formats enhances viewer retention and reduces churn. “By introducing these new in-stream ad formats we’re not only offering advertisers a more engaging way to reach audiences but also creating new inventory for publishers. This is crucial because many FAST publishers struggle with underutilized ad space, which affects their ability to monetize their content effectively.”
This type of in-stream promo is more prominent in the U.S than Europe, but Bedford thinks brands and fans will take to it. “That's the beauty of streaming. It can be easily achievable to add extra revenue for the channels during half times or in-game such as when there’s a throw-in. The holy grail for everyone is monetization in FAST and for us the future is looking at getting better attribution using performance marketing tools to generate more income for our clients.”
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